They just released a new detector so I don't think it is necessarily true that the detector system project is dead. I'm not sure how you get one of those boxes though: https://www.blitzortung.org/en/whats_new.php
I've been on waitlist for years (just checked my email - since 2014) and can't get one. I wish the whole project was more open and I could build my own from provided gerbers/BOM.
What I find the most annoying is that they don't give historic data to anyone who doesn't have a detector. But you only get a detector if you're in an area not already covered (not europe and north america for example) and even if you're in the middle of nowhere in Africa, there's years of waitlisting and the hardware costs. I gave up and built a scraper after an evening of looking into how to get a detector, but that means I only get future data of course, not a ten year history to do research on...
Yup absolutely. I don't like these open-but-not-really projects, though I can sympathize a bit. Some ADS-B exchanges and GPS RTK networks are the same way.
I've toyed with the idea of building my own (no huge network needed just send ~5 units to people around where I live). The RF stuff is bit out of my league though and I can't imagine how to test it, having to wait for thunderstorms.
